Peru

Interview with a Shímano

The Zápara people live in the Amazon jungle on the border between Peru and Ecuador in the area currently known as Pastaza, bordering on territories of Kichwa, Huaorani, and Achuar peoples. The Zápara were once one of the most important and populous peoples in the area, with 28 ethno-linguistic groups divided into 217 tribes and a population of 98,500 spread across a vast territory. They are now one of the smallest, with no more than 500 people.

The Price of Profits

The Initiative for the Regional Integration of Infrastructure in South America is the latest and largest in a series of bank-financed schemes to bring "development" to the Amazon Basin—and more trouble to the region's indigenous communities.

Healing Hidden Wounds

When most people think of reparations, they tend to think of things like money, land, or legislation. Certainly those are useful tools for helping victims regain their sense of dignity and move forward. But human rights violations tend to do much of their damage in the social and psychological realm, so physical reparations don’t really address the problem. If reparations are to be effective, they need to take into account the deep personal, family, and community damage caused by violations.

Land and Resources

With a population estimated at 40 to 50 million and with 400 identified ethnic and linguistic groups, indigenous peoples represent approximately 10 percent of Latin America’s population. Although their demography varies from state to state (in Bolivia and Guatemala indigenous people constitute the vast majority of the population, while in Venezuela and Brazil they represent approximately 1 percent of the total population), indigenous peoples throughout the region share a common experience: social and economic discrimination.

For the Love of Furniture

Big-Leaf mahogany is one of the most valuable types of wood in the international market and highly prized by furniture makers. As a result, it has been logged from most of its original range. The one area that still contains significant numbers of mahogany trees is the Madre de Dios region of the Peruvian Amazon, and loggers are flocking there despite the trees being protected. Unfortunately, this region is also home to several voluntarily isolated indigenous peoples—groups at severe risk because of the illegal logging.

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